The present invention relates to a lighting device and a display device incorporating the same.
Display devices that include light emitting devices and a transparent electrode, such as organic electroluminescence devices, generally use indium tin oxide (ITO) or zinc oxide (ZnO) for the transparent electrode.
However, because the above described transparent electrodes do not have sufficiently high conductivity, the resistivity at an area near a contact terminal and that at an area far from the contact terminal is significantly different to result in a varied electric current. The unevenness in the luminance of the light emission between areas is thereby caused since the luminance depends on the amount of electric current supplied from the electrodes.
Therefore, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication 2002-156633 provided a liquid crystal display device provided with an auxiliary electrode on the transparent electrode for a method of controlling the unevenness in the luminance.
However, since the liquid crystal display device used a non-transparent material for the auxiliary electrode, the auxiliary electrode needed to be disposed in regions conforming to the pixels of the liquid crystal. Such a limitation hindered the sufficient elimination of the unevenness in the luminance. Further, a precise technique was necessary to accurately arrange the auxiliary electrode to conform to the pixels. The difficulty in the process caused decrease of the yield.